This place is a message... and part of a system of messages... pay attention to it! Sending this message was important to us. We considered ourselves to be a powerful culture. This place is not a place of honor... no highly esteemed deed is commemorated here... nothing valued is here. What is here was dangerous and repulsive to us. This message is a warning about danger. The danger is in a particular location... it increases towards a center... the center of danger is here... of a particular size and shape, and below us. The danger is still present, in your time, as it was in ours. The danger is to the body, and it can kill. The form of the danger is an emanation of energy. The danger is unleashed only if you substantially disturb this place physically. This place is best shunned and left uninhabited.
BIOGRAPHY

BACKSTORY

TB, his parents, and most of his grandparents were all born and raised in Northern Arizona. Sandstone Springs was once a booming mining town in the southwestern American desert, but nowadays suffers stagnation from mine shutdown...ever since the big accident. Relying on its convenient location on Route 66, Sandstone Springs served as a rest stop for weary travelers heading west, but otherwise has declined to the status of a ghost town. Lately, there have been reports of several townspeople going missing...


Due to increasing issues with his graduate school advisor, Dr. Wulfe, TB impulsively drops out of his PhD program and returns home to Sandstone Springs. Upon returning, he finds out that his hometown friends have all moved on with their lives (having jobs, moved away, died, went to prison, etc.) and that all the land in Sandstone Springs has been bought up by some big natural resource industry company called Spar Corp. Everything TB has ever known is gone, everything but his home and remaining neighbors. To pass time, TB constructs a very crude lab in his shed, where he plays "supervillain", pretending to be a mad scientist under the name Dr. Vyrux - an old stage persona of his back when TB and his friends actually played in a band - and uses his remaining grant funding to experiment with a strange radioactive substance he found in an old friend's bedroom.

While TB was out collecting more samples one night on the side of the road, Mona runs her camper van into him! TB turned out fine, but the van was totaled. Being out in the middle of nowhere, Mona had no choice but to stay in Sandstone Springs until her van was fixed. As the only person in town who was the same age as TB, he made it his mission to befriend Mona, no matter how many times she's kicked him out of her camper van for being annoying. Eventually, the two of them became close friends, and TB can usually be found hanging out with Mona in her van while she's in town. Even though they are opposites like day and night, TB has a soft spot for Mona and holds a deep respect for her.


PERSONALITY

TB is an eccentric guy who was studying for a PhD in geoscience at university. He is highly curious about the natural world, dedicating his life to research and understanding. While TB tries to be open-minded, he is also easily irritable...and the towns folk he grew up with will claim that TB can be a disrespectful menace to authority figures. Despite this, he is very sociable, always preferring the company of others. TB is often in deep thought, and can come off as inattentive, missing major details in conversation. As a creative individual, TB tends to think outside the box to solve challenging problems.

LIKES
  • Radioactive minerals
  • Halloween
  • Banana flavored candy
  • Silly pranks
  • Spicy and sour foods
  • Sci-Fi disaster b movies
DISLIKES
  • Being alone
  • Not being able to touch lava with his bare hands
  • Christmas
  • Ghosts
  • Math
  • Dry weather and textures

TRIVIA

  • Voice claim: Sheen Estevez (Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius) - VA: Jeff Garcia
  • Singing voice claim: Brian Logan Dales (The Summer Set)
  • Named for torbernite, a uranium-bearing copper phosphate mineral found in uranium deposits.
  • Has two first names. His middle name is Hernando.
  • Drives a teal '77 Ford Bronco and is ATV certified. He has his own he uses for driving off-road.
  • Farsighted, he needs glasses to read but not to see though his left eye is weaker due to previous chemical burns. He wears them most of the time anyways.
  • Has crooked teeth.
  • Has skeleton ribcage tattoo in UV ink on his front and backside to scale. Glows under blacklight.
  • Patch of facial hair is fake; TB cut off his own hair and glued it to his face. He wants to look like a cartoon villain so bad.
  • Dark side of hair + facial hair is his natural hair color. It can be interpreted as aqua, brown, or black.
  • Chronic skin picker.
  • Speaks with a slight stutter.
  • Has a very strong internal monologue.
  • High endurance. Rumored to be resistant to radiation.
  • Unironically a "Swiftie" though he prefers her older albums.
  • Has a radioactive pet black cat named "Chernobyl".
  • Studied for his PhD at a university in Oregon! He hated it and eventually transfers to a university in Arizona.

ROCK FACTS

  • Torbernite forms as a secondary mineral in uranium-bearing deposits.
  • Is highly radioactive (alpha emitter).
  • Can decompose into Metatorbernite if it becomes dehydrated.
  • Often found with Autunite.